Real-Life Get Smart: Q&A With the CIAs Former Gadget Guru

According to Robert Wallace, real-life spy gear isn't anything like the showy devices we see in the movies. "The equipment is developed for clandestine use, for use that isn't flashy, that isn't noticed," he says. He should know: During his 32 years at the CIA, some of them spent working undercover, Wallace served for seven as director of the Office of Technical Services (OTS), where spy gadgets are created. In his new book, SpyCraft, Wallace and co-authors H. Keith Melton and Henry R. Schlesinger trace the history of U.S. spy gizmos. "The most common object can be turned into a piece of spy gear," Wallace says. "I look at a pen and say, 'Well, there can be a camera in there, a listening device or tablets to make secret ink. There can be a suicide pill in there--who knows?"

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

How has the CIA's demand for spy technology changed?

If you go back to a period in the 1950s, when the CIA was just getting started, technology was referred to as an aid. Fast-forward 60 years and technology and human operations are so closely intertwined, you can't speak about one without mentioning the other. You have to recruit technology just like you have to recruit agents.

Where do spy gadgets get built?

OTS has worked with the largest companies in the U.S. to build special equipment, and OTS has worked with one-man shops to design a particular piece of gear. National laboratories are a resource, and the engineering departments in universities are wonderful for concepts and ideas. OTS also has craftsmen in addition to its electronic and mechanical engineers. We have plastics people, we have folks who work in fabrics, woodworkers, bookbinders--all of those kinds of professions.

How do spies order their gear?

Technical officers work side by side with case officers all around the world, and they see the needs firsthand. We frequently received calls from folks after they had been on an international trip and read about high-tech gadgets on the airplane. You know, put this on your phone, and you can tell if the person on the other end is lying. Well, we would get people saying, "Can you guys do that? We could use one of those."

Who spies on us?

The average person probably encounters more spying than they realize. Parents love spying on their kids and the baby sitter by setting up a hidden camera. It's all spying, right?

How did you get started in the CIA's office of technical service?

I came back to Washington back in the fall of 1970 and was working for a congressman doing administrative work for him. One day I got a call and the fellow said, I'm from the CIA, I'd like to come over and talk to you. And I said, yeah, fine, sure. He said, I don't think I'm really happy with my job at the CIA, I think I'd like to work for congress. Tell me about it. So I told him a little bit about working for congress. He said, your job sounds interesting. And I said, your job looks interesting. So in essence, although it wasn't a swamp, I went there and he came to congress. So I was in the operations office for 20+ years. And in 1995, David Cohen, who is now I believe the commissioner for the New York Police Department, was at that time director of agency operations for the agency. And he asked me to take over the deputy job, the deputy of the office for technical service. And he said it's very critical that the office of technical service continue its close marriage with the director of operations and I want you to do that.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

So there's a lot of talk in defense circles about electronic intercepts replacing human intelligence agents, what did that do to the demand for novel spy gear?

If you go back to a period in the 1950s, when the CIA was just getting started, technology was really referred to as an aid. Fast forward to sixty years now, and technology and human operations are so closely intertwined, you can't speak about one without mentioning the other. You have to recruit technology just like you have to recruit agents these days. Agents are still the only person that can tell you intent. The agents that can tell you what leaders, perceptions, and intentions of leadership of foreign adversaries or terrorist groups. But technology can certainly get at information that previously would've been impossible to access.

How is spy equipment designed? Is there a specific request from an agent or a handler and the office makes the gear to order or is it more like Q from James Bond who whips things up by himself?

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Probably the real question is that, spies in Hollywood are built around car chases, seduction, and assassination and the business we really do is communications and information acquisition. That's what real spies do. So the equipment that is developed is developed for clandestine use, for use that isn't flashy, that isn't noticed, that isn't apparent. OTS has worked with the largest companies in the US to build special equipment. OTS has worked with one-man shops to design a particular piece of gear. National laboratories are a resource, the engineering departments in universities are wonderful resources for concepts and ideas for us.

So you said movies are all about flash and seduction and assassination, how has the myth of the CIA's gadgets hurt or helped the trade? Does the portrayal of the CIA in the movies help or hurt what you guys were doing in OTS?

My co-author, Keith Melton, who has had lot of experience collecting a whole variety of real spy gear all around the world, said that in his discussions with some of his Russian friends in recent years, they used to say, oh yes, we used to watch the James Bond movies because what we saw there is what we'd be encountering over the next 2-3 years. Before my time at OTS it was commonly said that the day after the airing of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., OTS would regularly get 2-3 folks saying hey, we saw this, if that's really possible, could we get one of those? Fast forward that to this century, what we frequently would receive is calls from folks after they had been on an international trip and reading about high-tech gadgets on the airlines, you know, put this on your phone and you can tell if the person on the other end is lying. Well, we could get calls, saying, can you guys do that? We could use one of those?

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Getting back to real life, how adept is the CIA at keeping up with the rapid advances in technology particularly when it comes to eavesdropping and information collecting?

The business of technology really shifted in government in the intelligence community in the 1970s and 80s. prior to that, the government frequently led industry in terms of technology and communications. Beginning in the late 70s and into the 80s, really accelerating through the 90s, new technology developments were coming primarily out of industry and in the private sector and I think one of the real geniuses of the intelligence community, OTS being a component of the intelligence community, was the agility of the intelligence community and CIA specifically to both recognize those changes that were occurring in technology and integrate it so it had that relationship with the private sector that allowed us to import and apply the technologies very quickly. The dependence for the intelligence community on private technology dominated how it would work.

How technologically sophisticated is Al Qaeda and does that hurt or help the effort to gather intelligence on them from an operational point of view?

An aspect of the commercialization of technology in the 21st century that wasn't so apparent in the Cold War is that this technology is available to anybody who cares to use it. It's evident that organizations like Al Qaeda have taken advantage of the information technology that's available to them, to communicate with people to provide direction, to use it to stoke up the fires of terrorism, encourage their people, use it to build morale, use it to exchange images as well as information. At the same time, those people who understand the technology can also exploit it for counter-espionage purposes. It's a cat and mouse game that just continues to evolve.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

So what's your favorite piece of spy gear that you were responsible for?

My favorite pieces of spy gear are the concealments. Folks with wonderful imagination can take the most common object and turn it into a piece of spy gear. So anything that I see anywhere, my first thought is, I wonder if that has a spy application with it. OTS had a whole series in addition to the electronic and mechanical engineers, we had craftsman, we had plastic people, we had folks who worked in fabrics, we had bookbinders, all of those kinds of professions were represented as craftsmen.

So when you see normal stuff like a pen, do you think is there a camera in there?

I look at the pen and say, well, there can be a camera in there, a listening device in there and maybe be a locating and tracking device in there, secret writing, tablets that you can make secret ink for secret writing. Heck, there can be a pad in there. There can be an L-pill, a lethal pill, a suicide pill, who knows?

So does that make you a little more paranoid than the average person?

Oh no, I don't paranoid at all. The average person probably encounters more spying than they realize. 99% of all the spying that goes on is done by somebody that you have at dinner with at night. Who spies in the US? Why do we have all this spy gear in commercial stores? Why, because families spy on each other. Parents love spying on their kids and their babysitter, set up a little hidden TV camera. It's all spying, right?

Right. Now I feel more paranoid.

RELATED STORIES

Retired CIA tech Robert Wallace says his favorite pieces of spy gear are "concealments." At right, a solar-powered radio-monitoring device, disguised as a stump, that was planted outside a Soviet military base in the 1970s.

A Part of Hearst Digital Media
Popular Mechanics participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.